The Bellerose Bulldogs have Big Mo on their side in the Battle of St. Albert.
The Bulldogs storm into Friday’s high school football tilt with the Paul Kane Blues riding a wave of momentum after defeating the Jasper Place Rebels in dramatic fashion last week.
“It should give us a big momentum boost,” said Ben VanLeeuwen, a Grade 11 Bulldog, of the 21-17 decision against the Rebels. “Definitely having a win going in to the next game will help our team. We’re excited.”
Friday’s kick-off is 6 p.m. at Riel Recreation Park between the 2-3 Bulldogs and 1-3 Blues in the Carr conference division one standings in the metro Edmonton league.
It’s also Senior Night for the Bulldogs, an annual tradition in their last home game of the season.
Last year the Blues won 6-3 as the teams combined for three field goals in the pouring rain and howling wind in the first grudge match between Paul Kane and Bellerose since 2012, a 26-6 win for the Bulldogs.
The Blues are coming off a 22-8 loss to the Austin O’Brien Crusaders (3-1). The contest featured the only Tier II (school population 750 to 1,249 students) teams in the Carr. AOB is ranked fifth in Tier II and the Blues are unranked. Both teams will huddle up in the Nov. 12 provincial north semifinals in Edmonton against the No. 1-ranked St. Joseph’s Celtics of Grande Prairie of the Mighty Peace league and the region seven Wheatland/Fort McMurray rep. The Lloydminster Barons of the Wheatland league are ranked eighth.
The Bulldogs are in good shape to qualify for the Championship Saturday playoffs Nov. 5 to determine the three metro teams for the Tier I (1,250-plus students) provincial north semifinals Nov. 12 in Edmonton.
Six of the seven Tier I teams in the Carr advance and the unranked Bulldogs need at least a couple of wins in their last three games to ensure they don’t have to line up against the No. 2-ranked Bev Facey Falcons (4-0) or the No.4- ranked Harry Ainlay Titans (5-0) in the Tier I metro playoffs. The Bulldogs lost both games to the top Carr teams by a combined score of 82-1 and a victory against the Blues would go a long way to avoiding Facey and Ainlay.
“It’s a pretty big game. Actually every game is big for us,” said Grade 11 quarterback Quade Kozak. “Hopefully we can go 3-3 after this week.”
The Bulldogs came through in the clutch against the unranked Tier I Rebels (2-3), who had beat the Blues 24-6 in the Carr season opener.
After giving up 17 unanswered points to trail 17-14 in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs roared back after a lengthy injury delay with 9:31 remaining to score the winning touchdown on VanLeeuwen’s 13-yard run and point-after attempt with 6:30 to go.
“We played hard. We had to step up our game and win it and the team did,” Kozak said.
Before the injury timeout the Rebels capped off a lengthy drive with a one-yard major, set-up by a pass interference call against the Bulldogs, and the convert was good.
While the injured Rebel received medical attention, the Bulldogs plotted their strategy to regain the lead.
“During the injury timeout we did regroup a little bit,” Kozak said. “The coaches said we had to step up our game and make a big play so we tried to focus on what we had to do.”
When play resumed, on first down from the Bellerose 20, Kozak hooked up with Travis Heggart for a 53-yard catch and run.
The duo joined forces on third and six inside the Rebels’ zone for an eight-yard strike.
“That pass to get a first down was probably the biggest one of the two,” said Kozak, 16, last year’s junior Bulldogs’ nominee for the Grant Yuzyk Trophy as the pool B MVP.
The Grade 11 Sturgeon Composite High School student completed 11 out of 16 passes for 188 yards against the Rebels and was picked off once on a ball that sailed through Colton Meronyk’s hands. He also gained 30 yards on five runs and leads the Bulldogs in rushing with 172 yards on 35 attempts after five games.
Heggart, a Grade 10 two-way standout, is the team’s top receiver with 164 yards on nine receptions.
VanLeeuwen, 16, pounded the ball on runs of 11 and 13 yards as the Bulldogs jumped ahead for good.
“It was a big touchdown but it just wasn’t me, it was our whole team. We had Travis with that big catch and Colton with a few runs there too,” VanLeeuwen said.
The Rebels responded with a promising drive, aided by a substitution flag against the Bulldogs on third down, but Kyle Viczko later came through with a key third-down sack.
With 40 seconds on the clock and the Rebels at their 50 with no timeouts, they completed a first down pass but on the next play Jacob Turpin picked off his third pass of the season and that was the game.
“They came back hard and took the lead but then we just had to react and adjust to that and come back even harder,” said VanLeeuwen.
The stalwart running back, linebacker and kicker finished the win with 44 yards on 12 carries and two majors, was credited with five tackles and converted three TDs.
On defence, nose-tackle Kieren St. Germain and undersized Grade 12 rookie tackle Nathan Tiedeman flexed their muscles in the trenches. Grade 10 linebacker Brett Yost (six tackles), along with Cordel Callioux (team-high seven tackles) and Chase Larose (one interception), also shone bright.
“The boys should feel proud of the effort they put forth,” said head coach Chad Hill of the team’s performance. “Now, we need to clean up the mental errors and rookie mistakes that we have been making in order to compete at the next level with success.”
